Department Blog

Health Sciences Libraries

For off campus access to the Library’s licensed online journals & articles, use the web-based VPN (Virtual Private Network).
To login through the VPN, just look for the blue buttonlocated in various locations from the Library website or login directly from the VPN login page: http://vpn.lib.ucdavis.edu

Note: From the UCDHS Citrix client, you will NOT be able to access all of the Health Sciences Libraries’ licensed resources. Using the VPN will give you access to the resources that are not available via the Citrix client login.

What if I am already logged in through my Citrix Account?
If you are already logged in through the Citrix client, just open up another web browser and login to the VPN with your UCD Login ID and Kerberos password. .

.Exploring the Literature Beyond the Health Sciences Disciplines at UC Davis
There are actually around 517 electronic databases covering the disciplines at UC Davis. Select a database and search the literature or use one of the Subject Guides to focus on databases for a specific subject area.

Videos, slides, posters, interactive software, models, and mannequins are all teaching tools used in veterinary medicine education. Vascular access training models and resuscitation models are two life-sized examples of products commonly integrated into the DVM curriculum. A few UK veterinary colleges have recently added the new large-animal palpation-training device, the Haptic Cow.

Haptic Cow, Wired Science, 11/6/09

The Haptic Cow simulator makes it possible for the students to palpate virtual objects, while via the computer monitor, the instructor can see what the student is doing and also help direct the movements.

Additional information on the simulator is available from the inventor, Dr Sarah Baillie. Use the unique and very helpful NORINA database to search for other teaching models, slides, posters, software, simulators, models, and mannequins.

Searching for the intersection of two very different subjects, the crossover where the topics meet, requires looking for the information in a variety of sources. The subject of animal alternatives is truly multi-disciplinary and requires multiple sources to answer a range of questions. A research topic may demand, for example, searching in: the PubMed database for the most recent and authoritative literature published in human medical research and education; the CAB database for the latest veterinary and animal science related articles; PsycInfo in order to consider potential stresses related to the study; and, depending on the question be asked, cancer-specific resources like NCI, mouse-specific resources like JAX, or a teaching alternatives database like NORINA. Essentially, the source, or the database, is determined by the question being asked.

The relationship between animals and humans is complex; the ethics of animal use in research is widely discussed, opinion and belief influenced by any number of factors, including culture and religion.

Searching for “religion AND animal experimentation” in PubMed will look for that topic in the medical literature; other possibilities include “ethics AND animal experimentation” and “vaccine AND religion”. Adding or using more specific search terms will narrow the results.

CAB indexes international agricultural research publications; searching for “animal welfare AND religion” and “animals AND religion AND ethics” will identify articles on this topic in journals not indexed in the human clinical database PubMed.

The Religious Studies subject guide lists many possible databases, resources that index research in different publications and from an entirely different perspective. For example, searching for “animal experimentation” in ATLA Religion database, or “vaccination OR vaccine” identify focused sets of relevant citations. In Philosopher’s Index, using “ethics” and “experimentation” and “animal” as search terms retrieves a select list of citations.

Other databases may be relevant (like PsycInfo, “animals” and “religion”), depending on the question. As always, please do not hesitate to come to the libraries or to contact a librarian for reference help.

The next PHR Meet the Author web cast series brings together public health historians and practitioners to connect the U.S. experience of the 1918 flu pandemic to the ongoing practice issues facing influenza preparedness planning.

The program will address cutting-edge questions including:
• How did diverse communities and local leaders respond to the 1918 flu?
• How can these responses inform contemporary planning?
• How are these lessons being applied to inform the U.S. response to H1N1?
• What are the implications for planning at the local level, both in urban and rural America?

Title:
Planning for a Pandemic – Can History Inform Action?

Date/Time:
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM (PST)

Speakers:
Howard Markel, MD, PhD
George E. Wantz Professor of The History of Medicine, University of Michigan
Alexandra Stern, PhD
Zina Pitcher Collegiate Professor in The History Of Medicine, University Of Michigan
Marty Cetron, MD
Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor Director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

On first glance, PubMed’s sleek interface is rather calming with its single search box and re-grouped and bundled tools & resources.On second glance, I’m really missing the familiar tabs across the top of the page (limits, preview/index, history, clipboard & details).

Where are my PubMed tabs?

So with the new interface, you’ll find the features that were formerly hidden behind the PubMed tabs, now laid out within the Advanced Search page. A link to it can be found at the top of the PubMed page. Other features can be found bundled in the ‘Display Settings’ and ‘Send to’ dropdown menus.

And what about the tabs set up in My NCBI to filter the search results? These filters, as before, are set up in the free My NCBI account associated with PubMed, providing space to save searches, build collections, create alerts that you will receive via email when new articles on your topic become available. Essentially, it helps you to customize the PubMed interface. These My NCBI filters are now grouped at the top right side of the page under the heading Filter your results. If you are not already using this very cool feature, be sure to create your My NCBI account now.

Just click 'Display Settings' to open up the dropdown menu

PubMed’s New Look! video series

Join me in the as I jump into the new interface and locate some of my favorite old PubMed features for searching the indexed literature. To learn about searching the health sciences and veterinary literature more efficiently, we can provide one-on-one consultations or group sessions using PubMed and other relevant databases. Register or drop-in for one of the scheduled classes on a variety of research topics, databases and bibliographic management software, Endnote, for organizing your research.

View the growing YouTube Playlist of instructional videos:

Note: The PubMed series and other playlists of instructional videos will be available through our YouTube channel. Find out more about signing up for a free YouTube account, then subscribe to our channel to be alerted when we upload new videos. You’ll find the subscription button at the top left on the blue Library Video Channel title bar.

Note: If you have a fast broadband connection: click the ‘HD’ button & then the ‘full screen’ button on the bottom left of the YouTube player. Flash Player 10 is required to view HD videos on YouTube. If you do not have the latest version of the Flash Player, you will only see fuzzy versions of the video and no HD buttons will be present on your YouTube player. Find out more about the Adobe Flash Player 10+ for Windows, Firefox, Safari, Opera.

The Send to dropdown menu

It is located at the top right of your search results. Clicking on Send to opens up a suite of options which include emailing search results, saving results to a Collection within the My NCBI free account and preparing results for the bibliographic management software, EndNote (free license for all UC Davis staff, students and faculty through the http://my.ucdavis.edu/software).

Preparing PubMed search results for Endnote:

The Send to dropdown menu is where you’ll be able to display your search results in MEDLINE view, then send to a ‘file’ that can later be imported into your Endnote database by choosing the PubMed NLM filter option.

Where has my Citation View gone?

I’m a happy PubMed fan once again, now that I’ve found out how to bring back the citation view for my search results. So, if you’re like me, and need to see your abstracts and full listing of MeSH headings listed, you’ll be able to turn on that feature in My NCBI.

If you do not currently have a My NCBI free account, just click on the link at the top right of the PubMed window and create an account.

To show the MeSH headings when in abstract view:

Select ‘abstract’ from the ‘display settings’ dropdown menu

Login or create a My NCBI account

Select Preferences | Pubmed Preferences

Select OPEN for Abstract Supplemental Data | Save.

And what about the wealth of information behind that old Details tab?

The intricate details of your PubMed searches are no longer hidden behind the details tab, but can be seen displayed along the right side of the window. Checking the search details is a good way to see just how PubMed is handling your search query. Be sure to contact one of us for assistance if you’re not finding what you need with your searches.

How to reach us:

Read more

on the PubMed Redesign in the NLM Technical Bulletin, Sept.-Oct. 2009.
The 9 page handout includes detailed explanations on the My NCBI Filters, Limits and Related Data & discovery techniques.
Create a My NCBI account to help organize your PubMed searches & created quick and easy alerts to stay abreast of the research being published in your area.

About the Videos

The PubMed videos were created using screen capture software using Techsmith’s Camtasia for Mac and then exported into video editing software, Final Cut Pro. Camtasia for Windows offers enhanced features, including choices for animating the cursor. Both packages offer zoom and pan features for viewing close-ups of dropdown menus. All videos were recorded at full screen then scaled to 720p and encoded for YouTube. Learn more about optimizing your video uploads and producing videos from the YouTube Handbook.
Alternative screen capture programs for macs include: White Shiny Box’s iShowU, Ambrosia’s Snapz Pro X, Techsmith’s Pro Jing and Telestream’s ScreenFlow 2.0 (one of my favorites that allows you to hide or show & animate the mouse). Windows options are many including Camtasia Studio, Pro Jing, Fraps for game capture. Mashable’s screencasting video tutorials for 12 popular products.Note: some products come bundled with video editors such as Camtasia, ScreenFlow, Captivate, etc. Other screen capture/screencasting software require the video footage to be imported into a video editor for further editing, compression and encoding.Bernadette Daly Swanson